Are Pain Relievers The Antibiotics Of The Future?

The claim: Bacteria may have our current antibiotics figured out, but new research in Chemistry and Biology suggests that the fix may already be here. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), a class of meds that includes medicine cabinet standbys like aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, cripple the proper functioning of bacteria’s DNA. In other words, the antibiotic of the future might be closer than we thought.

The research: Australian researchers found that three types of NSAIDs, bromofenac, carprofen, and vedaprofren, were actually able to block a “sliding clamp” on bacterial DNA, the mechanism in which molecules bind to each other and replicate themselves. Block this, and you inhibit bacteria's ability to proliferate.

However, all NSAIDs didn't have this effect. “We found no activity for ibuprofen. Asprin and acetaminophen are also unlikely to work as inhibitors of the DNA-clamp,” says the study’s lead author Aaron Oakley, an associate professor of chemistry at Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute based at the University of Wollongong. Their structure is different than the three tested, which makes them unlikely to block bacterial DNA function in the same way, if at all.

The bottom line: There’s no way to take advantage of this breakthrough yet, but as we face beefed-up bacteria without new antibiotics being produced to tackle them, it’s welcome news. New drugs can take nearly a decade to be approved by the FDA, but those that are already in use have a short road to approval. Carprofen and vedaprofen are commonly used in veterinary medicine, and though bromfenac is currently used in humans to treat pain after eye surgery, additional testing will have to be done before it can be prescribed specifically as an antibiotic.

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